Remedy For Mold on House Plants in a Screened Porch

by Susan Lundman

Inspect your plants closely to detect bugs or mold.

Neither humans nor plants can avoid the fungi that occur naturally in the air. Even if your plants are in an area with good air circulation, such as a screened porch, fungi can grow and form colonies that appear as the mold that you can see. Keeping your plants healthy and inspecting them often are your best strategies to prevent mold. In addition, there are strategies to minimize or control damage once you do see the mold forming

Types of Mold

Gray mold, black mold, sooty mold, water mold and powdery mildew are just a few of the diseases you may find on houseplants, even with good air circulation in a screened porch. Aphids and scales produce black sooty mold, a fungus that can cause leaves to turn yellow and fall off. Mealy bugs also produce a blackish, sticky mold as they go about their business of feeding on your plants.

Preventative Remedies

Even a screened porch may have pockets of poor air circulation. Using a fan and thinning plants are both ways to minimize damp conditions where fungi thrive. If one of your houseplants has mold, the likelihood increases that others nearby may become infected as well. To keep this from happening, move infected plants to an isolated area and wash your hands thoroughly after touching an infected plant. If a plant seems overwhelmed by mold, your best bet is to simply throw it away rather than have it infect the other plants.

Natural Remedies

Because your plants are close at hand on the porch, washing their leaves with a baking soda or soapy water solution at regular intervals is an easy step to control insects and remove mold. Rubbing alcohol not only will remove bugs, but also can kill bugs left behind. Other natural products to look for include biofungicides, copper compounds and neem oil. Read the labels on products to see if they treat mold, aphids, scales or mealy bugs.

Homemade Remedies

Homemade remedies are most effective in killing the fungi that live in the soil itself and produce the disease called damping off in small seedlings. You may not see damage to your grown houseplants, but it's a good idea to keep your plant's soil healthy nonetheless. Home remedies include chamomile tea spray for the soil in a ratio of 2 cups of water to 1/4 cup of chamomile or seaweed spray made from a ratio of 1 gallon of water to 2/3 cup of seaweed concentrate.

Synthetic Insecticides

Synthetic products contain toxic chemicals that are best to avoid if possible. Because your plants are indoors, use insecticides as a last resort and take infected plants outdoors to spray them. Let the spray dry thoroughly before bringing the plant back indoors. As with natural remedies, read the label on insecticides to ensure that they will treat molds and fungus diseases.

About the Author

Susan Lundman began writing about her passions of cooking, gardening and entertaining after working for 17 years at a nonprofit, child development agency. She writes for Global Post, Modern Mom and SFGate when she's not busy hiking, biking, snowshoeing and watching baseball. Lundman received her M.A. from Stanford University.

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